How To Change Notification Sound On Windows

By default, Windows uses the “Windows notify system generic” sound as the default audio for notifications. But you can change this default sound for another sound of your liking. If the notification audio itself is a nuisance to you, removing the notification sound is also an option.

We’ve written about how you can change your Windows notification sound to match better match your liking.

Table of Contents

How to Change Notification Sound on Windows?

Windows already has a list of short audio clips which you can choose from. You can change any sound on Windows to your preferred sound from the list.

Another handy feature on Windows is that it also allows you to create audio schemes. You can set different sounds for each type of notification and save it as a custom scheme. They can be used in the future to instantly change notification sounds.

Through Windows Settings

You can change the notification audio for the action centers or any other notification sound from the settings app. However, the steps to change the sound settings in Windows 10 and 11 are moderately different.

The following steps will guide you on how to change the notification sound on both versions of Windows.

On Windows 10

Press Win + I to open Settings.
Go to Personalization.
Select Themes from the left panel and click on Sounds.
Selecting a theme will also change the notification sound according to your chosen theme. However, it will change the background and accent color of your PC as well.
Search and click on Notification under Program Events.
Click on the drop-down menu under Sounds and select your preferred notification sound. You can also click on Test to check the notification audio.
You can also click on Save As to save the changed sound settings as a scheme.
Press Apply and then OK to save the changes.

On Windows 11

Open Settings by pressing Win + I.
Go to System > Sound.
Click on More sound settings.
Go to the Sounds tab.
Search for Notification under Program Events and select it.
Click on the drop-down menu under Sounds and select your preferred notification sound. Click on Test to play the selected audio.
Press Save As to save the settings as an audio scheme.
Pressing Apply will apply any changes you’ve made, and OK will save the changes and close the settings window.

Through Control Panel

The control panel holds all advanced settings related to your windows system. While the settings app holds basic Windows settings, the control panel is a more traditional approach. Follow these steps to learn how to do it:

Press Win + R to open the Run program.
Type control panel and press Enter.
Go to Hardware and Sound > Sound.
Select the Sounds tab and click on Notifications under Program Events.
Press on the drop-down menu under Sounds.
Select your preferred sound from the list. Click on Test to check the selected sound.
Click on Apply and then OK save and quit.

How to Add Custom Notification Sounds?

Windows also allow you to use custom audio as the notification sound. You can download an audio clip or create one of your own. However, if you want to create a custom sound, it must be in .wav format.

Recording custom audio and converting it to .wav format will also work just as well as directly creating a .wav file. But, it will not let you use any other audio format as the notification sound.

Follow these steps to learn how to do it:

Copy the .wav by selecting it and pressing Ctrl + C.
Open the hard drive partition containing your Windows Operating system.
Navigate to Windows > Media.
Press Ctrl + P to paste the .wav file into the folder.
Click on Continue to provide administrator privileges.
Press Win + R, type mmsys.cpl and press Enter.
Go to the Sounds tab.
Select Notification under Program Events.
Choose this custom sound from the drop-down menu to use it as your notification sound. Similarly, selecting (None) from the drop-down menu will disable the notification sound.
Click on Test to check how the audio will sound as your notification queue.
Press Apply and OK.